Painful Emotions
by Arcee2
Summary: Duo Maxwell is acting strange and the other four pilots take notice of this. Much spazing on Quatre's part and quite a long speech from Wufei. Poor Trowa only has two lines though. ~.~


_Okay.  _

_Five in the morning + history exam at Nine in the morning + Gundam Wing Soundtrack + insomnia = this fic.  It's pretty screwed up and really scared my friend Jenn but I like and that's all that counts, isn't it?  ISN'T IT!?  I haven't really written any fanfics and the only ones I have written have been Gundam Wing.  That'll change I hope.  I'm better at writing originals anyways._

_Note = No matter what you may think, there is NO shonen-ai in this fic whatsoever._

_Disclaimer = I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the corresponding characters.  So there.  Ha. XD_

**Painful Emotions**

By Arcee

When Heero Yui woke up that morning, he nearly jumped out of his skin.  He was staring into the sleeping face of none other that Duo Maxwell himself.

"What the…?  How?"  He should have been woken up by this intrusion of his space, but then again, Duo was the master of stealth.  Heero was about ready to pommel the other pilot awake when he noticed a few things different about his unexpected companion.

Duo Maxwell's infamous braid was missing.

Heero carefully reached over and gently lifted a few strands of Duo's hair to their full lengths.  The longer strands barely touched the 02 pilot's shoulders.

Also, Duo wore a pained expression as he slept.  Heero looked closer, and noted that there were tears at the corners of his eyes.

Heero shifted uncomfortably but the slight movement had been too much.  Duo slowly opened one eye, then two, and then they turned into saucers as he noticed exactly whose bed he'd stumbled into.

"Heero!"  I… I…"  Duo broke off and rubbed his eyes, but new tears just sprung forwards.  "I'm sorry… I…"  He hung his head as his cheeks burned.  "I didn't know… what to do… I…"

"When did you get here?"  Heero pressed, wondering what had possessed his comrade to violate his privacy and space in such a manner.

"I… I don't know… sometime last night… I… I'm so confused!"  Duo covered his face with his hands, not wanted to fell Heero's scrutinizing gaze on him anymore.

Heero glanced around the room, and found the other bed empty.  Four out of five of the pilots had been given orders to come out here to the little outback safe-house, and then were put on standby.  Which was annoying, for Heero had no desire whatsoever to be sharing the tiny, two-bedroom house with ANY of his fellow Gundam pilots.

"Everyone's probably awake."  Heero nodded his chin towards the door.  "That way."  Not that there was any OTHER way.

Duo nodded and scrambled to get out of the bed, feeling rather stupid to be caught in such a position as this.

Heero led the way into the kitchen, and there were loud exclamations of "Duo!?" echoed around the kitchen.

A sleepy-eyed Quatre queried when he'd gotten there.  Duo shrugged and received suspicious looks from around the room.

Heero had started making his breakfast by that time, ignoring the others when suddenly, Trowa asked, with a raised eyebrow, "Where on Earth did you sleep?"

There was a silence as Duo shifted nervously under all this unwanted attention.

"Um."  He started shifting from one foot to the other.  "W-where's the… bathroom?"  For he really did need to go.

Quatre pointed to the door behind Duo's left shoulder.  Duo gave a strained smile as thanks and hurried into the tiny room.

Wufei gave a now-eating Heero a quizzical look.  "Since he came from the vicinity of the room we are sharing, I'm going to assume he was with you."  Trowa and Quatre regarded Heero with amazed stares.

"Well he wasn't on the floor, was he?"  Heero said as he put his dishes into the sink.

No one mentioned anything about Duo's hair.

In the bathroom, Duo had his face eye-level with the tap, watching the water run over his calloused hands.  He brooded over what had happened so far and decided he wasn't feeling well.  He dried his hands and went back out into the kitchen.

His expression once again pained, he had one hand on his stomach, he collapsed on the wall behind him.  "I…" he started and the others turned towards him.  "I… don't feel well."  He shifted his weight.  "Think you would mind if I lied down for a bit?"  His eyes fairly begged the others to say 'go ahead' or something to that effect.

Quatre looked confused.  Trowa stared steadily at him, his eyes betraying no emotion, and Wufei glanced up a t him with a semi-shocked expression.  Heero didn't look at him at all.

"You know where the room is."  Heero stated and Duo took that as his consent and all but ran to the bedroom.

"Since when does 'The God of Death' ask anyone, especially us, if he can do or not do something?"  Wufei gazed at the others.  They shrugged, guessing that Duo was just tiered, and then went about their business.

It was almost noon when Quatre decided to take food into Duo, and to check up on how he was doing.  What Quatre saw as he approached the bed, made his gasp and nearly drop the tray he was carrying.

Duo was asleep, but the way the blankets were tangled around him suggested he was having off-an-on nightmares.  Also, he was shirtless.  And that's when Quatre decided he really wanted to leave.  Quatre placed the tray hastily on the bed-side table, taking quick notice of Duo's tears, and then fled the room.

A pale faced Quatre stumbled through the door to the kitchen from Heero and Wufei's room.  He collapsed into a chair at the table across from Trowa, who paused in the middle of a sip of coffee.  Wufei stopped reading his book and even Heero showed some interest in the blonde's plight.

"I… Duo… he… marks… crying…confusion… pain…ow."  Quatre babbled.  He stopped, blinked, and then broke down into tears.

Trowa patted Quatre's head awkwardly, Wufei put down his book and Heero closed his laptop.

Quatre forced himself to calm down and tried again.  "Duo… has... marks… all over… his body…"  He finally got out.

"Marks?"  Heero asked.  "As in… scars?"

"No."  Quatre's eyes ran around the room.  "As in… yeah... sort of… I"

"He's a soldier right?"  Wufei supplied.  "Scars are expected."

"No but… oh!  THEY'RE NOT SCARS!!!" The others jumped, looking quite offended.  Quatre shook his head to clear it.  "They're recent.  It looks more like… like…. Someone ran a knife or something across his skin.  And there are bruises.  And burn marks, like what a cigarette would leave…"

"Well whatever it is," Trowa said firmly, "we must respect his silence.  That's personal Quatre, if he doesn't want to tell us then he doesn't have to, and you shouldn't have."

"But…!"  

Trowa shook his head.  "No."  Quatre's eyes fell.

Sometime that afternoon, Trowa lay sprawled on the couch flipping idly through the channels on the T.V.  He sighed and looked over at Quatre, who was still quite traumatized from earlier.  He turned off the power and shifted to a sitting position, patting the seat beside him.  Quatre saw the invitation and scurried over to Trowa, leaning against the pilot's broad shoulders.  Right now, he wanted to be close to someone, ANYONE, who was not Duo Maxwell.  The ach in his chest subside a little as Trowa let him be close.

Quatre whimpered a little as Duo dragged his sleep-filled self past them, stopping by the door.  He painfully reached down, grabbing a small duffle-bag, then trudged back across the room towards the bathroom, locking the door behind him.

Ten minutes later, Wufei looked up from where he sat at the kitchen table, his brow furrowed.  He glanced around the room in confusion, biting his bottom lip.  Trowa raised an eyebrow at him.  "Why are we here?" He asked.  

Heero stopped his typing.  "That's pretty deep Wufei."  He said.  Wufei shook his head.

"No.  Why are the five of here?  In this cramped hut?  There's no phone.  Heero has no connection on his computer.  We were all told to come here, and then were put on standby.  That was our last connection to the outside world.  Why are we clumped together like this?  We're usually spaced out, around the area.  Sometimes around the world.  Then Duo shows up with… torture… signs all over him.  What's going on?"  The others looked blankly at Wufei after this speech.

Duo paled.  No one noticed him standing in the doorway there, so he silently slipped back into the bathroom, once again locking the door.

He stood there for a moment then slammed his back into the wall, just nicking the corner of the corner of the towel rack with his ribs.  It hurt.  Quite a bit, actually.  His breath caught in his throat and he waited until the pain subsided before trying to breathe again.  His legs took that time to buckle underneath him, and he slid to the floor, a gloom setting over him.  He placed his head on his knees and wept.

"I'm sorry."  He cried as the world around him erupted into chaos.  "I'm so sorry."

~Fin~

_Well, there you have it.  This is what happens when I, Arcee, gets tired and tries to write something.  Please, if you review, tell me ways I can improve it.  The ending, as you saw, had no closer.  This was intentional and you'll just have to use your imagination and come up with your own idea of what happened.  Good ol' 'make-you-use-your-brain' endings._

_Bye, now!^^_


End file.
